The tactics of the Cologne police force triggered a debate over racial profiling and political correctness, with some deeming the measures necessary to prevents sexual assaults while others see it as institutional racism.

Police in the German city of Cologne are facing a backlash after using an offensive term coined to describe migrants from North Africa. The term ‘nafris' was used in a tweet published on the North Rhine-Westphalia Police Department's official Twitter page.

"Hundreds of Nafris screened at main railway station," read the tweet, accompanied by a photograph of police obstructing a group of North African men from joining New Year's Eve festivities in the city centre.

But the head of Germany's far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, Frauke Petry, tweeted in support of the police. "Nafris probably only wanted to join the church choir," she said sarcastically. "They must have found some prey there."